Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo released a statement in response to inquiries about an alleged affair with one or more interns.

Recently, accusations and slurs have been made online about my personal life; and like a lot of things on the Internet, much of it is false.

Here’s what is true. Several years ago, my wife and I had a difficult time in our marriage. Since that time, my wife Connie and I have worked hard to put this behind us, and believe the episode to be a painful but private matter best left in the past.

While my past actions were unfortunate, and for which I have expressed to my family my sincere apology, one blogger has alleged that official rules or laws were broken. That simply is not true.

It’s sad that my political opponents have chosen to resort to the lowest tactics by dredging up a private matter from years ago just 21 days before an election. The timing is no accident. They would rather wallow in this type of politics than debate the challenges that face our community.

I am disappointed, but frankly, not all that surprised given the players involved. I leave this in the voters’ hands. It’s my view that the people of Buffalo and Grand Island face more pressing issues than this. My family, who are more important to me than anything, has gone through a great deal to put this in the past where it belongs.

We ask only for the privacy that any other family would be granted under these circumstances — nothing more, nothing less.

The allegations were made on a Western New York politics blog, PoliticsNY.net, which has previously made allegations about Hoyt that have fueld the Capitol rumor mill, but ultimately were never proven. This week, the blog has called for Hoyt’s resignation, and published emails that it claims were exchanges between Hoyt and an intern, dated November 2003 and June 2004. Hoyt neither confirms nor denies the validity of the emails published on the blog.

In his statement, Hoyt says that no official rules or laws were broken. In May 2004, the Assembly adopted new rules to prevent fraternization between interns and lawmakers, as well as between staffers and interns.

Update From Silver spokesman Dan Weiller:

Information regarding the alleged conduct of a member of the Assembly was forwarded to the Assembly press office today.

At the Speaker’s direction, pursuant to Assembly policy, the information was forwarded to the chair of the Assembly Standing Committee on Ethics and Guidance for appropriate action.

The Assembly has strict policies regarding fraternization. Violations of these policies will not be tolerated.

But this brings up a question: if the emails are real, which was not addressed in Hoyt’s statement, then the timing of the alleged affair would have spanned, at least from November 2003 (before the Assembly rules on fraternization were enacted) through June 2004, after the rules were adopted.

When the rules were adopted, there was a grandfather clause that permitted existing relationships between interns and staffers, but at the moment it is unclear how the rules would apply between a lawmaker and intern. We’ll update as soon as we know more on this nuance of the rules.

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